dustychow

HUB issues - cheap hubs don't work well.

I have slew of external portable drives that include mostly Western Digital drives and a couple of Toshiba drives. I have ALL my data backed up on these drives - 10 of these are 2Tb SSD and many more are old 2Tb HDD. I have six drives that are totally devoted to photos - These include birds, flowers/plants, scenery, family, pets, friends. Half of all my drives is primary and the other half are backups.


The biggest issue is (was) that the drives kept turning off & on continuously. I delved into online info regarding "possible" fixes for this problem relating to included power issues within the Device Manager or Control Panel - none of this information solved the problem of off/on. All these drives are connected to the computer via three hubs. I was getting very frustrated, I feared that it might corrupt the drives, or the data contained on them.


My partner came up with a different solution. We purchased a port 20 USB HUB. It was a bit pricey compared to the cheap hubs that don't work very well. I was a bit of a skeptic at first, but I thought I'd give it a try - so far so good at two days the off/on issue has not reappeared. This hub seems to be "stable."


SIIG 20-Port Industrial USB 3.0 Hub with charging 200W / 5V / 2.1A / Data Sync

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Yup, if the hub can't supply the power demand from everything that is plugged into it......

I had a static (un-powered) 4 port hub on the old desktop, but the only things plugged into it were the keyboard and mouse. Not a high power demand from either of them.

dustychow

I tested different scenarios of hub/drive connections and even with one hub connected and a couple of drives plugged in it I still had power issues - keep in mind all the cheap hubs are powered. I have a keyboard/mouse combo - I have found those don't demand any powered connections.

dustychow

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Bill_de Loc: US

Absolutely!

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bioteacher Loc: Brooklyn, NY

I had the same problem but it turned out the USB port was the problem. I changed ports and it seems to be working.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

IMHO, your setup is crazy and asking for trouble. Not that you can't have a FEW storage devices plugged directly into your system, but you really need to look into a NAS system. If you want the best, look into Synology. YMMV. Best of luck.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

The advantage of a NAS is that you can access those drives from any device on your network. But even from a single computer it’s crazy to have so many 2TB drives. Storage is relatively cheap. I’d at least consolidate my data. I recently upgraded my photo editing desktop from a 500gb SSD and 2TB SSD and an 8TB spinner.

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

You are running a way too complex set of drives. The new hub solved the under powered problem but... I would suggest you unhook most of them and only update them from time to time. Besides, your data and images will then be safer. No hacking if they aren't plugged in, no power surges, no lightening hitting the power pole (It happened to the hub on a pole in my backyard).

I have a total of 7 hard drives, 3 internal and 4 external. C SSD 512GB drive=operating system and apps, D SSD 1TB drive = documents and data storage, P 6TB HDD for photos and videos. External E 12TB drive for backups-I keep one full week + current week whole system backups.

These are run by 64GB DDR4 RAM, an i9 9900 CPU. No problems with power etc.

I also have 4 older external drives of 1/2TB to 4TB, the smallest has a backup of the C drive and I copy my data to one and image files one of them periodically. The 4TB gets a copy of last week's full backup. The rest of the time they are not plugged in or powered.
So even if lighting hits the house and fries the active system, I can buy a new machine and restore from the isolated external drives and lose a week or so of work. That is better than losing everything, some of which goes back to the early 90s, including a lot of lesson plans etc. that for some reason I retain, even though I retired in 2007.
Well, last week my wife, who is taking computer classes at the adult school's outreach program, told me they wanted to know if I would teach a class or two since I have a lifetime teaching credential. No Dear. She is quietly working on me reconsidering or taking the same class she is so we will be doing something together. Hmmm? Teach an adult school history, government, Constitution or geography class and have my wife be one of the students. NO, I AM RETIRED AND JUST PLAIN TIRED!!! Besides, it would be embarrassing to have the teacher constantly being "advised" by a student.
As to taking a class, also no, if the teacher wasn't very good or lacking in some knowledge, I might not be able to resist butting in.
I know, it happened at a faculty in-service training class where I knew more about the subject than the person running it and I ended up being invited to give a few lectures of an "Alternate View" of the material. One of the other students in the class was one of our Assistant Principles, who ended up gushing how much I knew about the subject and tried to get me to teach some in-service training classes.

MJPerini

robertjerl provides a good answer above.
I agree that you are trying to run too many drives all the time.
Drives drop for several reasons but inadequate power IS at the top of the list.
There is also insufficient bandwidth (a single USB connection for multiple drives)
There Thunderbolt would help.
But you could also use two larger self powered drives with different folders for different subjects OR partition the drive into multiple volumes.
The second drive backs up the first (as the local component of your backup system)
Because these have their own power , AND because there are only two of them, your insufficiency of power goes away. You could also get an inexpensive UPS device which avoids spikes, sags, & lightening, and mitigates power outages because the battery provides enough power for auto shut down to take place
Good Luck

dustychow

I appreciate everyone's comments and ideas. As I've stated in my original post, I have already corrected the problem with this new hub. I have had this new hub several days now and it solved the problem of my drives turning off & on or just turning off. It works like a charm - this is all I need.

Manglesphoto Loc: 70 miles south of St.Louis

My $20 eight port USB powered Hub (Brand IDKnow) is still working great after 7-8 years while it is a tad slow it does everything I need. however I very seldom run more than two drives at a time.
Actually it's like extension cords You can't run a 10 hp motor on an 18ga. wire!!!
It's not really rocket science it's common sense!!